In a culture where the words 'doctrinaire' and 'dogmatic' are almost always used in a negative sense, there is a need to recover the positive value of Christian doctrine. The book provides a robust defence of the place of doctrine as an indispensable aspect of a healthy Church and as a tool for the renewal of Christian life. It will help the reader understand how doctrine came to be so despised and how some of the abuses of doctrine, past and present, can be avoided. Above all, it is a book about the given-ness of the gift that is God's love in Christ and the given-ness of Christian teaching as it communicates that gift. It argues that doctrine is one essential way in which Christ is shared and that, far from being a set of dry and irrelevant propositions, it is a living tradition that helps to shape the Church in the likeness of Christ.